Mathematics and the aesthetic

new approaches to an ancient affinity

Edited by
Nathalie Sinclair, David Pimm, William Higginson

CMS Books in Mathematics | 1

Springer

2007

Abstract

The essays in this book explore the ancient affinity between the mathematical and the aesthetic, focusing on the fundamental connections between these two modes of reasoning and communicating. From historical, philosophical and psychological perspectives, with particular attention to certain mathematical areas such as geometry and analysis, the authors examine the ways in which the aesthetic is ever present in mathematical thinking and contributes to the growth and value of mathematical knowledge.

This book includes the following essays:

• A Historical Gaze at the Mathematical Aesthetic, by Nathalie Sinclair and David Pimm

• Aesthetics for the Working Mathematician, by Jonathan M. Borwein

• Beauty and Truth in Mathematics, by Doris Schattschneider

• Experiencing Meanings in Geometry, by David W. Henderson and Daina Taimina

• The Aesthetic Sensibilities of Mathematicians, by Nathalie Sinclair

• The Meaning of Pattern, by Martin Schiralli

• Mathematics, Aesthetics and Being Human, by William Higginson

• Mechanism and Magic in the Psychology of Dynamic Geometry, by R. Nicholas Jackiw

• Drawing on the Image in Mathematics and Art, by David Pimm

• Sensible Objects, by Dick Tahta

• Aesthetics and the "Mathematical Mind", by David Pimm and Nathalie Sinclair

Cited authors

Borwein Jonathan M.

Schattschneider Doris

Sinclair Nathalie